Runaway Heartache
by dancingtothebeatles
Summary: Chloe said she wasn't ready for him. But how long can Alek wait? And how much flirting can he endure before she wakes up and smells the soul mate? Okay, maybe not that drastic. Just a fic about Alek and Chloe 3 Chalek! Duh...
1. Chapter 1

**At the end of episode 8 (which I just watched btdubs), Alek just has this unexplainable expression on his face that I set out to explain :P So I go into his emotions and all and then add in my own little version of what he does. He seems very depressed in this chapter :/ sorry but that's what I imagine his hidden side to be like. I don't know if I'll continue the fic or not. But if I do, (it won't all be depressing like this chap) it'll probably just be Chloe figuring out Alek is always there for her and she loves him and blah, blah, BLAH! So anyways, pleeeeeeease review!**

It was a sensation he had never experienced before. He wanted to lunge at him and tear him away from her, inflicting as much bodily harm as possible. He wanted to chuck something highly breakable, preferably glass, at the wall and have all emotions expelled with a gratifying shatter. Yet at the same time, he wanted to find dark, secluded corner where he could curl up and weep in privacy or burst out of the coffee shop and out onto the street where he could full out sprint in the opposite direction, hopefully outrunning his feelings altogether.

But he did none of these.

He stood grounded to the spot, like he'd sunk an anchor where they chatted, oh so innocently, regardless of him standing not ten paces away. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pull away.

His face registered dozens of emotions—lips parted in shock, nostrils flared in rage, ears tuning into Chloe expressing her concern with utmost sincerity. But as Brian set his jaw and gave her an earnest look, saying passionately, "I intend to find out," it was Alek's eyes that expressed his true feelings. He saw how Chloe gazed up at that-that human with eyes filled with admiralty and—though Alek hated to admit it—desire.

Now all Alek wanted to do was run. And that was precisely what he did.

Without a word to Chloe, he turned on his heel and set his sights on the door that led to the glorious outdoors. Out of the awful confinement of the cramped coffee shop. He virtually stomped to the exit, innocent bystanders scampering out of his way. Once he gasped in the crisp air, he broke into a run.

He ran with all he had. His legs reaching out far as they could and contacting the ground with extra force only to push off and propel him several feet forward. His arms pumped fiercely and a wrathful grimace touching his lips.

The power felt unreal to him. He felt primal, almost. Or the wind rushing past him brought him on some sort of high. Maybe he really could outrun his sorrows.

It was several minutes before his muscles began to seize up. He physically couldn't bring himself to push his legs forward any longer. Alek didn't want to stop. The adrenaline was still fresh and sent coursing through his veins by his rapidly beating heart, numbing all feeling, all emotion. He felt a surge of pride. He'd outrun his troubles.

But all of it caught up with him in that moment. He stumbled into an alley and collapsed against a beaten brick wall, gasping for air. The adrenaline supply was cut short and his muscles began to ache and burn, regardless of his constant training with Chloe. But the worst of it all was the hurt, the raw disappointment. The hope—not to mention the ecstasy—he had experienced when she voluntarily, of her _own free will_, kissed him on the cheek completely dissipated. He told himself he was a fool to think it would change anything. That her admitting she had feelings for him, but wasn't ready yet, would make Brian disappear. She needed time to sort things out. She wasn't ready.

"Wasn't ready for what?" he spat bitterly to no one in particular. "To give up _her relentless flirting with Brian?"_

Somewhere, in a far, exceedingly dark corner of his mind, he felt sorry for Brian. Felt sorry because if he saw Chloe kissing Brian like she'd Alek the other day, his mental state would be ten times worse than it was then. And for a guy with such an incessantly cool demeanor, he already considered this an all-out melt down.

Because Alek had never experienced this before. He had always gotten what he wanted. Never had he looked at someone and said, "He has what I want most dearly in the world."

He had never experienced this most pure form of envy.

Until now.

Until Chloe.

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	2. Chapter 2

**ZoMyGosh! The response to this has been ah-mazing! Wow :) So anyway, this is very Chalek, but also very sad :( At least, I think it's pretty sad.**

**Please review with suggestions for a new title! The one I have now was only for the 1****st**** chapter, which was meant to be a one-shot. So please, review with suggestions, and I will pick my fav!**

**Also—this story is pretty wishy-washy. I don't have a real plan for it. So if there's any way in particular you want it to go, tell me! :D I will definitely take your ideas into consideration.**

**This chapter was based on a review from **_**Alanna-Banana1987**_**and roughly inspired by the song "Down to Earth" by Justin Beiber. I know, I know. It's actually a really good song! It's mainly the first part. Not the chorus really, which I don't understand at all.**

Alek didn't know exactly when the rooftop started to become his favorite place.

Once, many weeks ago, he dreaded having to scale up her wall and sit alone, doing nothing in particular for hours and hours except pinching himself to keep his eyes from shutting closed. But Valentina argued that both Jasmine and Alek were her protectors, and he ought to straighten up because he was just as big a part of this as Jasmine, or Valentina herself. So he sat, grumbling those first weeks, his butt, he thought permanently damaged from the stone-hard shingles. One such night, he was shifting himself into the least offending position. He finally settled with his head propped up on one of the outcroppings and his gangly legs extended and resting on the top of the opposite one. Only his spine screamed out for him to switch positions, but at the moment it hurt the very least of all of his body parts.

His head was inclined toward the sparkling San Francisco skyline and his hearing subconsciously latched onto to Chloe. Her steady, easy breathing and slow but solid heartbeat. At some point during the night, his spine wizened up and shut its mouth, compromising to a dull ache.

Alek was decently comfortable in his little alcove and he soon began to drift off, his blinks becoming slower an eventually closing his eyes altogether. Chloe's heartbeat was like a lullaby filed somewhere in his mind he couldn't quite place. Her steady breathing, long inhale, hold, and heavy exhale, soothed his normally blazing thoughts. And he fell into a slumber, not unlike when his mother would cradle him as a boy, and whisper consoling phrases into his ear. But all he would hear was her heartbeat.

He was soon unable to sleep at home. Alek would pace his room in agitation, finding a small amount of comfort in the rhythmic movement. Or he'd lie above the covers for hours, wondering what it was that kept him from his dreams. But whenever he did slip into sleep, it was his dreams he wanted to avoid. They were filled with assassins and thick chains and deep pools of water. And a bloodied, beaten girl held in the grasp of an unidentified figure. She'd scream for Alek until her throat constricted, and then collapse to the ground in heart wrenching sobs at the feet of the Order.

Alek would wake sweating, his sheets in a ball at his feet. Without much thought at all, he'd spring himself from the humid confines of the comforter, and into yet another session of pacing.

It was then that he'd had enough. After he woke the second time from watching Chloe helplessly die before his tear jerked eyes, he made his decision.

When Alek asked to take over the night watch entirely, his aunt gave him a calculating look.

"Why?" she inquired. "I thought you hated night watch."

Alek shrugged and said, "It's not like I can sleep anyway." Which was partway true.

Alek was then the sole protector of the night. The roof wasn't nearly as painful when he started bringing a blanket to lay under him in his comatose state.

It was one such night, when Alek was dozing on the blanket in the alcove, that Chloe's heart sped up rapidly. By the time Alek shook himself awake, she was screaming, "Help! HELP! Alek! _Alek_! Please, help!"

Those were the exact words from the dream, the exact inflection, and he almost expected to see crimson blotted in her hair, smell the distinct coppery scent of fresh spilled blood on her clothing and see the faceless Order member take her own claw to her throat six individual times—

Alek threw open the window and catapulted himself to her bedside. Chloe was thrashing, clawing at her face with, thankfully, very human hands. Her features were contorted in fear, hot, wet tear spilling over her pale, bloodless face. Alek searched for something to do. So in an attempt to stop the fighting, he caught her shoulders and pressed hard into the bed.

"_No!_ Let _go_ of me! _Alek_, help!"

Chloe scratched at his arms so he let go of his hold. She continued to kick and shriek.

"Shhhh... It's me. It's Alek," he said in the most calming voice he could muster.

Her shouts just became louder, thinking he was somewhere near, "Alek! _Alek! Help me!"_

"Chloe? _Chloe_! What's wrong?" Alek heard a worried voice from the hallway. Footsteps, loud, hard and pounding, quickly grew in volume. Alek dove under Chloe's bed just as Meredith, Chloe's mom, burst into her daughter's room room.

"Chloe?" Merideth screamed, her voice several octaves too high and catching in her throat. When she saw Chloe's writhing form, she sighed.

"Chloe, it's just a dream, honey," she sat on the bed and began to stroke Chloe's hair like only a mother could do. Like Alek's mother used to do.

"Wha-what?"

Chloe began to calm down. Realization seemed to hit her square between the eyes and her eye lids shot open. As soon as she saw her, she wrapped her arms around her mom.

"It's okay, Chloe. I'm here…" her mom muttered.

Soon enough, Chloe put a cork in the tears and sat back against her pillow.

"Chloe, you were terrified," her mom whispered. "I've never heard you scream like that."

_I_have had the unfortunate opportunity, thought Alek with resentment.

"I know. I-I had a dream about the break in. Except Alek never came," whispered Chloe.

Her mother cooed and tucked a piece of Chloe's hair behind her ear.

"It's okay, they won't come back."

Chloe smiled, but there was something behind it. Something bittersweet.

"I know, mom," she said. "I'm tired. Can I get back to bed?"

From her voice alone, Alek could tell she was barely hanging on until her mother left. This was no robbery dream. This was a death dream.

"You sure you don't need anything?" her mom said, gazing at her daughter.

Chloe turned over on her side, the universal teenage code for "We're done here."

"I'm always here, Chloe," her mom said before kissing her cheek.

"I know, mom," Chloe said, her voice wavering dangerously.

As soon as the door clicked shut, silent tears began to stream out of Chloe's eyes. Alek rose, hesitantly, from under the bed.

"Chloe—" he said, barely above a whisper, approaching her.

She turned over and looked at him, if she was surprised that he was there, she hid it effectively.

In one quick movement, Chloe threw herself at Alek and wrapped her arms around his neck. He shut his eyes tight and held her firm while she sobbed into his shoulder. His right hand rose up to stroke her hair, copying her mom's long and drawn out movements, while the other held her fast.

Chloe thought that maybe she should try to cover it up. Try to hold her own. Try not to succumb to Alek's comfort, his embrace, his soothing touch. But there was something in his warmth, something that told her that this was their Vegas*. Something in his hold told her that he'd always be in the corner of her eye, just past her sights, there to swoop in and kick some Order butt or just hold her as she relives the worst moment in her entire life. He'd always be out there on her rooftop.

So she let him console her. She let him stroke her hair, rub** her back and whisper words of peace, his lips brushing her ear. Like her mother would if she only understood what she was. Chloe let herself break down in sobs that shook her even to the core. And in time, her hiccups faded away and she ran out of tears. So Alek just held pressed her body to him while she felt some of the cold hollowness inside her core recede. She felt rutted out and feeble. So Alek just held her.

Finally, wavering violently, Chloe unlatched her arms from around his neck. Alek kept his arms wrapped around her waist and inclined his head to look her square in the eyes. He searched them with intense severity. He wanted her to love him, he willed her to reach forward and crash her lips against his. But she stayed, captured in his gaze. He scoured her eyes for any emotion, any telltale sign that she felt something—anything—resembling desire. He longed her to gaze up at him like she did Brian, like she would if she loved him. But her eyes were indecipherable.

Alek bowed his head in defeat. He was tired of trying to figure her out. But he felt two fingers at his chin. They pulled his head back up but he didn't meet her eyes. He couldn't meet her eyes.

"Alek," she said in a whisper that barely reached her own ears. He had to look at her this time. "Thank you."

He wanted to be anywhere but in her sights. He wasn't doing her some sort of favor. He wasn't doing _any_ of this because he was her protector. He stopped being just her protector a very long time ago. He didn't want any more Thank you's.

He was doing it because he _loved_her.

And all he wanted was an "I love you." All he wanted was for Chloe to say those three little words. All he wanted was for Chloe to day dream about him like she does Brian.

All he wanted was for Chloe to love him.

"I can't," he muttered and turned away. He was dangerously close to tears. He wouldn't let her know just how much of a hold she had on his heart.

Alek stepped away from her. He couldn't feel her touch anymore. He couldn't hold her and comfort her without coming dangerously close to another breakdown. He couldn't be around her any more without coming dangerously close to say those three little words.

"No… _Alek_," she pleaded, stepping off of her bed and reaching for him. Alek ignored her and hopped nimbly onto the windowsill.

"Don't go," she choked on the words.

Alek turned and stared at her. Maybe she wasn't the most gorgeous thing, with her insane bed hair and red, blotchy face. But to Alek, she was perfect. The pale moonlight brought out her eyes, constricted in despair.

"I thought you would've figured it out by now," Alek said, his voice gentle as softest fur and dripping with heartache. "I never do."

He closed the window behind him with a snap.

And Chloe burst into a fresh set of tears.

***My slightly out of place reference to the saying "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Sorry it wasn't too clear. But I tried putting the saying in after it, and it didn't really fit well.**

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	3. Chapter 3

**Let me just express to you how much I hate this chapter. And Brian. I hate Brian. And it almost made me throw up, having to write about Chloe's love for him. If it seems forced, it is. I'm sorry, but it was just too hard to get creative with it.**

**You still haven't given me title suggestions!**

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There are some things that always stay the same.

There's the moon, massive, pale and mysterious, casting everything in that eerie white light. The sun, bright hot and happy. There will always be births. There will always be deaths. There will always be smiles, and in that sense—tears.

Chloe stayed on her bedroom floor that night, pondering such things as she watched his sleeping form, cast in the strangely pale rays of the moon. Her back rested against her bed, chin propped up on he hands. Her eyes were glazed over and she didn't really register what her unblinking eyes told her she saw.

She didn't think about anything in particular, actually. She just replayed the last months in her head, over and over.

Chloe had never really taken time to try to wrap her head around the entire situation. She'd never thought about all the events starting at her 16th birthday, in strictly chronological order, in meticulous depth. Remembering all the small pieces that fit together to make the whole brought her to realize how lucky she was. How lucky that she hadn't died.

_Again_, that is.

But it wasn't like she didn't have enough traumatizing events to fill her nightmares. There was the tower, feeling the air rush past her as she wondered what it felt like to die. Unfortunately she had the _pleasure_of experiencing it. Her skin prickled at the thought, and she physically shivered. But she made herself trudge on, past the fear. Past the trepidation that seized her when her mom was targeted, and the thick chains that bound her. And the white hot burning horror that shot through her as she plunged into the frigid water. The maniacal laughter of Scarface.

But there was always someone there. Whether it be Jasmine's hands grasping her shirt, towing her to the surface, or Alek's arms like a vice grip, Chloe a happy prisoner in their refuge.

Flashes of Alek stung before Chloe's eyes. That first day, when he pressed her against the school wall. When he chased her down in the woods, some of the old fear gripped heart when she just thought of the place. Alek's constant worries, Alek's constant watchful eyes, Alek's eyes that night in particular, whispering his hurt without uttering a single word. Alek's words, outside the jackal cave, that he couldn't live with himself if she died again. His words, throaty and unsettlingly sincere, wouldn't leave her flaming thoughts.

Her thoughts found that kiss, that darn kiss that complicating things even further. But had Chloe—? No, _certainly_not. But...

Had she _enjoyed_it?

Her heart cringed. _No. No, not now!_She couldn't seriously be falling for him.

"Why does everything have to be so darn complicated?" she muttered.

But Chloe realized that sitting there, mulling everything over wasn't helping anything. In fact, it had only managed to depress her even further, if that were possible.

Chloe pushed herself off the floor, bracing herself against the frame of the bed. Her eyes found the stark blue lettering of her alarm clock and she groaned.

_2:37 am._

She slipped into her silken sheets, preparing to feign sleep just as she knew Alek was, curled up outside her window.

She wished things could just go back to the way they were.

There was no particular reason she was up there. She just felt like no one could find her there. Jasmine and Alek always knew where she was. 24 hours a day, under their radar. Sometimes it became unsettling, and she needed to find just the smallest crumb of solitude. It was like a breath of fresh air.

She could understand why Alek enjoyed rooftops so much. You could get a good sense of the situation from up there. Targets were easy to find, and from that vantage point, you could see farther than imaginable in every direction.

The wind was fiercer up there, and pushed her hair out from the haphazard knot at the base of her neck and into her face. But she didn't mind. There was something clearing about standing up so high, so tall, and looking down, everything seemed much simpler.

"It's nice, right?"

Chloe started and turned to find Jasmine, leaning against the air conditioner unit opposite of Chloe.

"My kitty senses weren't tingling, does that mean they're broken?"

Jasmine laughed, a kind and genuine thing, and began to stride towards Chloe with large, leisurely steps.

"That's a really concerning! We should get you checked out by the vet," Jasmine countered, sidling up to Chloe.

She gasped, looking at Jasmine with wide eyes, "Now that was just cruel!"

"That's the idea," she said, with an airy, stuck up lilt to her voice.

"Jasmine, what has _happened_to you?" Chloe joked, drawing back. She covered a gaping mouth with her hand.

But Jasmine was finished with the playful banter, and came out with what she trudged all the way up there to say, "That's depends. What did you do to my cousin?"

Chloe's jaunty demeanor instantly collapsed. Flashes of Alek made their way to her mind's eye. The kiss. His hurt that night when she called it nothing. When explained to him that she wasn't ready. Then that very night, his arms, the only safety she knew. The gradual journey from friends to… well, she didn't quite know what they were at the moment.

She stepped back towards Jasmine so she didn't have to yell to be heard.

"I don't know, Jas," she muttered, truthfully. "I honestly don't know."

But Jasmine just shook her head, "Something happened. I don't know when, but you guys need to figure it out."

She turned from the edge of the rooftop, and began to meander back to the opening for the staircase. Chloe just continued to gaze down at the people milling around the streets, drifting in and out of dress shops and book stores, or effortlessly chatting over coffee.

"How'd you know?" Chloe shouted, as Jasmine was several paces away by then.

Jasmine smiled halfway, resembling the famous Mona Lisa smirk, "Let's just say my 'kitty senses' were tingling."

Chloe didn't know whether to laugh or _harrumph_. So she just stood, wind whipping at her clothes and hair, a slightly confused expression gracing her features.

"Oh, and your break is up. Lana wants you down in the shop."

Chloe sighed heavily and followed Jasmine down the narrow staircase, into the storeroom and out into the shop. Lana intercepted her from there.

"_There_ you are!" she said. "Your break was up _five minutes ago!"_

"Sorry, Lana," Chloe said lightly, brushing past her. Lana shook her head in exasperation, grumbling, "Honestly, if I didn't owe you _my life_..."

Chloe smirked at her comment but didn't say anything because it was humanly impossible to hear her from the distance she was at. And well, Chloe wasn't quite human, anyway.

She made her way to a pile of clothes discarded in the dressing room.

"Just make things go back to normal, Chloe. I'm tired of the forced laughter," was Jasmine's parting sentence. Chloe didn't even watch her go.

_So she's noticed_, Chloe thought_. I for one, think my fake laugh is quite astounding._

But Jasmine was right. Since Chloe began trying to sort things out, they just got way more complicated.

"Hey."

Chloe whipped to see brown eyed boy, standing with his hands shoved way down his pockets. He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, making his stance appear awkward.

"Hey, Brian," Chloe said enthusiastically, stepping away from the folding she was doing.

"_CHLOE! WORK!"_

She cringed and Brian stepped forward to help with the clothes. "Wow. It's a dictatorship here," Brian commented as he stacked a few shirts on a higher shelf.

He folded for a while, doing a terrible job of it, but Chloe didn't say a word. But her heartbeat sped up rapidly when his hand brushed hers as he laid a pair of cut-offs on a pile across from Chloe.

"You know I'm not paying you," Lana said as she breezed past them.

"Group effort!" Chloe shouted back to her.

"_Whatever!"_

"Chloe?" Brian murmured.

"Hmm?" she said for an answer, and inclined her head towards him.

Brian took her hand and a shiver racked its way down her spine. She turned to face him fully, eyes wide and thoughts churning. Chloe feared her heart would give her away, expose her raging nerves. But she knew she shouldn't be feeling it. She knew she should turn on her heel and walk away from the imminent disaster, not to mention heartache.

But she was like a helpless deer, looking into the blinding headlights of the guy she wanted. Wanted so badly it _hurt_.

"I want to take you somewhere," he said, quickly adding. "As friends! Of course, as friends."

Captured in his gaze, the words hardly passed through her mind before she said, "Yeah, yeah, sure."

"Okay," he said, letting her hand gently slide out of his. "Err… Pick you up at 7?"

"Mmm, hmm," Chloe added to a dazed head nod.

"Alright, well... see you… then," he said before turning and slumping out of the shop.

Chloe stayed in her trance for entirely too long. Her heart rate was dangerously high but her thoughts centered on Brian. His deep brown eyes, like pools of melted chocolate. His hands, calloused and yet so tender, reaching for hers. His perfectly tousled hair, just the right amount of unkemptness. His low and silky voice. His forbidden lips, so soft and inviting as he uttered her name.

"Chloe. _Work_."

"Yes, _Hitler_."

**Please don't abandon this fic after this chapter! I know it was awful :'''(**

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	4. Chapter 4

**All you Brian haters out there, let me tell you I'M WITH YA ALL THE WAY. But unfortunatly, Chloe _isn't _so I had to write in all this lovey dovey Brian crap. Sorry :/**

"It's my father's," Brian said, his voice ringing out on the solid dock. It was a serene night, the moon high and large, and the water lapping gently onto the poles sunk into the ocean floor. The stretch of beach was isolated except for a single boat. A single, expensive and sterile looking white boat.

"I-it's great," Chloe said listlessly.

"Is it okay? I mean, you don't seem that excited about it," he said, looking at her sideways. He could tell something was up just by her eyes, doe like and worried.

"No, no," Chloe said forming her lips into a smile and laid a hand on his arm to reassure him. "It's really great."

What she didn't say, was how terrified she was of the water. Ever since her arctic plunge bound in chains, large bodies of water had been avoided at nearly all costs. But she could tell he had meticulously planned this out, Chloe even saw a lone dinner table set out on the top deck, overlooking the, _gulp_, water.

"He's really into yachts and stuff. I thought you might like to have dinner up there?"

"Yeah, that's great," Chloe lied. "I love boats!"

_And hate water_. But she didn't mention anything about it.

"Well, after you," Brian slid aside for Chloe walk in front of him.

"Jasmine, I don't like this," Alek complained. "I really don't like this."

Alek fingered the ridged edge of a palm frond nervously.

"Me neither, but there's nothing we can do," she replied, a dangerous edge to her voice. Jasmine was still cranky about being drug out to the beach for _more_protector duties.

From the shadows, Alek and Jasmine watched Chloe gingerly stepped on board Brian's Father's glowing white yacht, the virtual icon of the privileged and wealthy.

Alek felt helpless, watching the captain putter away from the dock, away from Chloe's protectors.

"Jasmine," Alek whined. "I can't just sit here doing nothing while Chloe's out there by herself!"

"Shut up, Alek," Jasmine said not unkindly, more like a scolding mother. She pulled him deeper into the dark foliage. The beach extended in front of the pair, isolated. "The only reason you don't like this is because of Brian."

Alek shook his head, "No. Brian set aside. This doesn't feel right. Chloe. On a boat. In the middle of the water. By herself. I don't like it."

"If we can still see her, she'll be okay."

Chloe leaned against the metal railing, the steel captured in a death grip. Brian's arm just brushed her own, a comfort in the presence of the fathomless ocean water.

Dinner set heavy in their stomachs and a contented sensation descended on Brian. But Chloe was set on edge. She couldn't get the water out of her head. She couldn't stop contemplating how next to nothing was barring her from the waves.

"I'm sorry," said Brian, and Chloe looked at him out of the corner of her eye, but kept the water in her peripherals.

"For what?" she asked, perplexed.

"This." He gestured to the boat and the water. "I can tell you don't like it."

Chloe sighed heavily. She had really tried not to make it obvious that she was constantly terrified. "I don't like water," she explained. "I almost drowned _er..._ when I was a child."

Chloe guessed that mentioning that someone threw her in a pool of water, bound in chains, because a group of people are set on trying to kill her wouldn't blow over well.

But Brian laughed faintly, accepting the lie, "You should have told me! I would've taken you somewhere else!"

"No, no!" cried Chloe. "You put it all together so special! I couldn't do that."

"It's okay. I just want us to have a good time, as friends. I really do."

Chloe took that to heart. He was sure stuck on that "as friends" deal. He kept bringing it up, and every time he did, it was just another bittersweet reminder of what couldn't be.

"Well, hello," said a silken voice behind them. They both whipped around, searching for the voice. They found the speaker, a hard looking man with dark hair and chiseled features, leaning against the deck wall.

"What're you doing here?" Brian said, apprehensively stepping toward him. Something about the man's smooth voice, the tilting of his head, his dominating presence, struck fear in Chloe.

"Oh, I just wanted to meet your little _girlfriend_. Chloe, is it?"

Then Chloe placed him as Brian's dad and kicked herself for being afraid of him. She stepped forward as well as Brian. Her fear of him vanished, curiosity replacing it.

"Hello, I'm Chloe," she said, holding out her head. He shook it eagerly, a strange light glinting in his eyes.

"Hello, Chloe. I'm Mr. Rezza. Would you like to see the captains's room? It's really quite fascinating," he asked in a way that was almost rehearsed. Like he led tours of his yacht often.

"Um, sure, I guess."

Brian reached for Chloe's hand and she took it gratefully. The further down in the ship she went, the closer she got to the water, and the more anxiety she felt. Mr. Rezza led them through a bleached white door and down a narrow hallway. Chloe's breathing rate increased in the close quarters.

Brian's father stopped at a minuscule door and pushed it open. The room looked like they stole the decor from a Pirates of the Caribbean set. The room was packed with fake sculls and barnacle covered artifacts. Letters sealed in wax and plastic gold pieces littered the desk. There was a small, lumpy looking bed, a chest bound in worn leather, and a beaten old desk. The effect was really quite captivating, but being so closed in set her even further on edge.

"I think I'll just stay outside..." Chloe said tentatively, clinging to the doorframe. There were no windows in this strange room.

"No, no, come look at this desk, it's really quite fascinating," Brian's dad continued.

Chloe stepped in, uncertainly and very aware of the weight of the rest of the boat, pressing on the roof above their heads.

"This really is... cute," Chloe commented passively.

"Brian's mother decorated it herself. She always loved the boats," he explained, fingering hanging decorations, like a ripped up old net and a coil of rough rope.

"I don't know if I share the sentiment, sir. I need to go get some fresh air," Chloe said, backing towards the door.

"Oh, no, Miss King. I'm afraid you aren't leaving."

Chloe froze. She turned to find the door had silently swung shut, she was trapped. Suddenly, Brian's father transformed from unsettling to terrifying.

"Wha-what do you mean?" She stumbled, heart hammering against her ribcage.

"Dad, what're you doing?" Brian said, stepping forward.

"Tell him, kitty cat. Tell him what you are."

"What? What're you—" Chloe's voice box shut off, horror flashing in her eyes. This wasn't about a tour of his fancy little yacht. This wasn't about sizing up his son's 'little girlfriend.' Suddenly it hit her, like a 50 pound bag of flour, straight in the chest.

"How did you know?"

"Dad, what's going on?" Brian said, stomping forward. Chloe felt the floor tremor under her feet and clutched the door.

"Brian, you mean you don't know?" his father cooed, voice slippery like silk and dripping with malice. "As soon as I met her, I felt something. Something was wrong about her."

"Stop talking about her like there's something wrong with her!" Brian shouted, drawing up to his father.

But regardless of his raging son, his father remained cool as a cucumber, "Oh, but son. There is."

Mr. Rezza strode toward Chloe slowly, like he was savoring the feeling of triumph, "Chloe, my dear son, has been playing you. Using you to get closer to the Order."

Brian's eyes followed his father, eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"Chloe is Mai."

Brian's father fingered a one of Chloe's many ringlets. But his son was silent, searching her horrified face.

"Chloe," his voice was barely even a whisper, but it reached her ears like tiny shards of glass, pricking her eardrums painfully. "Is this true?"

All Chloe could do was jerk her head in an erratic nod. Brian reeled backwards, turning and hiding his face.

"I trusted you!" he shouted, charging back towards her in rage. "You were using me?"

"Brian!" Chloe cried, reaching for him. "No, I wasn't. I had no idea you had anything to do with the Order!"

"Oh, but how couldn't you?" his dad interjected. "I am the _leader _after all.

Chloe gaped at him, and backed further towards the door.

"You're-you're lying," Chloe gasped, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes as she realized all the trouble she'd gotten herself in to.

Brian stared at her in a dumbstruck stupor, and his father laughed maliciously.

_"No, no, no, no, no,"_ she said, shaking her golden head. "This is a dream. This is a _nightmare_."

"You wish, Chloe King, you wish," his father said, grabbing her forearm in a death grip.

She should've been awake by then. She shouldn't have been able to feel the crunching grip of her worst enemy.

"Brian!" she wailed. "Brian. I loved you. And you're letting your father kill me?"

Mr. Rezza pulled a coil of rope from the wall and began to bind her with it.

"No you didn't, Chloe. You never loved me. You were using me."

"No! I wasn't! Brian, that's why I couldn't kiss you! You had no idea how much I wanted to, but you would have died if I did!" Chloe shouted, not even bothering to fight his father.

"No, you're lying," he said breathlessly, sinking onto the captain's bed and laying his head in his hands.

Chloe's eyes wouldn't leave Brian. Sobs racked her diaphragm but he wouldn't look at her. He wouldn't see her, bound at the waist, harsh ropes drawing blood on her forearms.

"I hate you," he whispered.

Chloe seemed to collapse from the inside out. By the time she let her entire body weight fall, Mr. Rezza already had a fistful of her hair in his grubby hand, so she shot back up onto her feet.

Brian's dad rapped on the door, "Mikka, open the door!"

"Yes, sir," replied a deep, very familiar voice.

And to Chloe's horror, the man that threw open the door was none other than the man who haunts her dreams every night. Scarface.

"Hello, Beautiful," he drawled, entirely too eagerly. "Come, come."

Brian's dad towed her by his fistful of her hair and Scarface followed his boss down the narrow hallway, prodding Chloe in back for encouragement.

"I heard kitties hate the water," Scarface taunted in her ear. "You certainly don't. Right?"

"Jasmine. Who is that?" Alek said. "Jasmine! Jasmine!"

"What?" she said sharply. "I was asleep."

"Chloe, Brian and some other dude went below deck," Alek said, rushing through the words. "Then this anther dude appeared on deck. And he looks like—"Alek pointed eagerly. "Look, there he is! Over by the front! He looks like—Oh, my god. Jasmine! It's—"

She jumped up, squinting at the white form in the distance. But Alek didn't hear Jasmine's next words, he was already in the water, swimming for the boat like his life depended on it. Well, like _Chloe's_ life depended on it. Because it _did._

"Scarface."

From Chloe's position on the floor of the deck, Scarface and Brian's dad looked even more terrifying. Shaking with trepidation, she tried to adjust her arms so she could slip out of the ropes. Just asthere was a reason Mr. Rezza was the leader of the Order, there was a reason why she couldn't manage to escape. He just _that good._

"It's just so ironic!" rang out the villain's voice, rocking with laughter, "You, a _Mai,_fell for my son!"

He was right. So right that it hurt in her gut. Chloe bowed her head. _How could this have happened?_

"It's just perfect!"

Chloe kept her eyes on the bleached white surface of the boat, soon, she knew, to be marred with crimson. Chloe couldn't stop shivering, but it had nothing to do with temperature. It seemed the fear had seized her once more. She knew she would die.

The only one that could save her, hated her.

The only one who loved her, couldn't save here.

Yes, in that moment, staring into the eyes of death itself, Chloe realized just how much Alek loved her. _And just how much she loved him back._ But Alek was across an entire ocean. And he couldn't have helped her then. She was completely alone, with no one to help her. Death was but a knife's length away.

Chloe gulped down her fear. She wouldn't let her killer have the satisfaction of seeing her shake in pure terror as he executes whatever horror he has planned out for her.

"But we do need to continue with this _messy _business. Mikka, get on with it," Brian's father demanded.

"Sir—"

"Kill her! Get on with it!"

"But—"

"Fine! I'll do it!" he said, snatching a long and devilishly thin knife from his coat pocket. He knelt in front of Chloe, his malicious face mere inches away from her own. She bit her lip to keep from crying out.

"Shame, you really are a pretty thing."

Chloe felt the metallic blade, strikingly cold compared to the humid sea air, come to sit at her neck. The cold temperature spread in a wave throughout her body, fanning out from the needlelike blade and cooling her nerves. The tremors shaking her died down and she took a long, deep breath. She was strangely calm, staring into the face of death itself.

But then Alek's face flashed before her bloodshot eyes, except he was in her place. She watched helplessly from somewhere very far away as Brian's father knelt before and placed a blade at his neck. She was far enough away to be unable to help, yet close enough to hear his strangles cries as crimson spread around him in a thick puddle…

Chloe gasped for air. The tremors returned as violent as ever and her breathing sped up, all the way to hyperventilation. A lightheaded feeling eased its way into her head, making the world seem like it was spinning before her eyes.

But she never let go of the image of Alek.

A silent teardrop slid down one cheek.

"Good," Brian's father cooed, in a voice that was almost paternally, "That's better. I like to see the fear in my enemy's eyes before I kill them."

And he slit her throat.

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	5. Chapter 5

**Okay. So, to clear something up for a few of you, in the last chapter, Alek **_**was not**_** about to die. That was Chloe, imagining Alek in her situation. Sorry :/ Should've made that more clear. My b!**

Dying is a strange thing for Chloe King.

It was her breathing that stopped first. Her lungs for a moment screamed for oxygen, the bulk of it all escaping through the razor thin slice in her throat. But it then quieted down. Her chest quit rising and falling, but she didn't feel that burning, urgent sensation of holding her breath for too long. Her heart pumped out a few excruciatingly slow beats, like it savored the feeling of being still animate.

It was a curious feeling to Chloe, to be aware of her body slowly shutting down, organ by organ. She felt like she was drifting into a forced, drug induced sleep, starting at her toes and ending with her scalp. She thought it astounding for the numbness to consume her so slowly, strange that it felt tingly, like the last cells in her body cried out to stay alive. But the hours that Chloe felt herself lay there, her body dying around her protesting eyes, only a few brisk seconds passed in the real world. But dying is a strange thing for Chloe King.

Chloe wondered why she wasn't scared. She wondered why Alek wasn't there, cradling her. But he was gone, and wasn't coming. A gentle tear slid out of the corner of her eye and splashed onto the deck. She watched the salty drop slowly dilute the crimson flecking the white washed surface in drawn out detail. The blood was too much for it, and the tear was consumed by it.

Chloe was dying, all alone. She wondered why fear didn't grip her heart. But fear had no heart to grip, for now it lay silent.

And Chloe lay dead.

****PAGE BREAK THAT DIDN'T APPEAR IN THE LAST CHAPTER****

Brian didn't understand his rage. He didn't know why he attacked his dad. All he knew was that a girl was dying, and he had to save her.

Mr. Rezza didn't see it coming. And as Scarface was manning the boat, there was no one there to warn him. Mr. Rezza was busy enjoying his achievement. His gleeful words of triumph were lost in the wind of a speeding boat. His victory party was short-lived, however; because an elbow belonging to a certain son of his crashed down on him, in the middle of his skull. He collapsed without a word.

But before Brian could reach the girl, there was the sound of soggy clothes splashing against metal, and Brian's eyes found a blond haired teenage boy rolling over the railing and hitting the deck full force. He almost attacked him, thinking it was his father's back up of some sort, but he stopped when he saw the horror in the boy's eyes.

To Alek, seeing Chloe slumped against the railing was the most horrible moment of his life.

"How did you—" Brian began to question but was cut off when Alek clambered to his feet and ran for Chloe with inhuman speed. Alek slid on his knees the last couple feet, and reached his arms out for her body.

"Hey! What d'you think you're doing?" Brian shouted, drawing up to the strange boy, thinking he would harm Chloe.

"_GET AWAY FROM HER_!" Alek bellowed, nostrils flaring and eyes like that of a wounded animal. "_WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER_?"

Seeing his viral look, Brian backed off, saying, "Nothing, nothing, it was him."

Brian pointed to his father's comatose form, but immediately realized his mistake. Alek sprung up from the ground and charged Mr. Rezza. His teeth were bared and claws extended. It was then that Brian realized he was Mai.

Bu before Brian could do anything so much as protest, Alek already had his claws around Mr. Rezza's neck.

Alek had never in his life experienced this sort of fury before. It was as if by killing this man, it would somehow bring warmth back into Chloe's body. Like her eyes would crack open like the dawn, and laugh as if this were some kind of sick joke. Alek could feel the man's pulse under his fingertips. He could feel his strong heart.

And wanted ever so badly to stop it.

But some unknown form smashed into him, knocking him from the man and sending him sliding across the deck.

"That's my father!" Brian shouted, taking a protective stance against the body.

"HE KILLED CHLOE!" Alek thundered, racing over to Brian, and drawing up to him. "HE _KILLED _CHLOE!"

Alek felt the spit fly out of his mouth and onto Brian's face, but he didn't care. His father had killed Chloe. _His father had killed Chloe, _and someone was going to pay.

"But does that mean he has to die?" Brian reasoned, hoping to talk some sense into the seriously mentally unstable boy.

"_YES!" _was Alek's roar for a reply. He made a grab for Mr. Rezza, but Brian's arm was there to stop him.

"Listen to me," Brian said. "_Listen to me, _killing him won't change anything."

Alek fell silent, letting the words sink into him. He let it churn around inside his head. _Killing him won't change anything. _What good would it do? Would revenge help anyone?

Would Chloe want it?

Alek slowly stepped away from him, knowing that the proximity would be entirely too tempting. And then he saw Chloe. He _really_ saw her. Her blank eyes, cold as ice. Her chalky, pale skin. The blood that soaked her front. Her blond ringlets spraying every which way.

Every single detail of her seemed to spring off the girl and soak into his void eyes. The long fringe of her eyelashes, the faint freckles that dotted her nose, even the way her lips were parted, as if she was surprised at realizing what death actually felt like.

Alek stepped towards her in a trance and knelt by her. He pulled Chloe into his lap and he buried his face in her neck, sobbing uncontrollably. His arms cradled her head; blond tendrils spread everywhere and matted with blood.

"How many lives did she lose?" he shot over his shoulder.

"Wha-what? I don't—"

"_HOW MANY LIVES DID SHE LOSE_?" Alek bellowed.

"Uh..." Brian stammered, thinking this boy quite insane. "Just the one?"

Alek gasped, sitting up and pulling Chloe farther into his lap. He saw a flicker of hope flare up in the distance.

"Just one?" he shouted. "_JUST ONE_? Are you _SURE_?"

"Um... Yeah. As far as I—"

"_WHY AREN'T YOU WAKING UP_?" Alek shrieked at Chloe's cold form. He shook her shoulders, willing her to take a breath. Tears began to stream out of his eyes and pour onto Chloe, mingling with the salt water dripping off his hair and clothes. "_Chloe!_ Chloe wake up! _Please_!"

His voice was breaking with every word. And every word was pure anguish. And every second she didn't stir was agonizing. His mind became unhinged with grief. The vocal cords shut off and he slumped over Chloe's body, wailing into the fabric of her shirt.

Alek felt dead. He felt like someone—someone very cruel— had take a wooden spoon and scraped out all his insides, so that all he had left was a shell. A shell that sobbed into a dead girl's shirt.

Alek didn't know how long he laid there. He didn't know how long he sobbed over the girl he once loved. He didn't know, or care rather, how long Brian clutched the railing opposite of Chloe, a sickly green color. Alek didn't know how long he felt her body lose heat, lose the smallest pieces of life that were left in her. He didn't know how long he clung to her, some part of his brain telling him that she wasn't really gone if he could still hold her in his arms. He didn't know how long his tear's mingled with Chloe's blood or how long he wished that he could trade places with her, that _he _was the one that lay dead in pools of his own blood in this tragic story.

All he knew was that Chloe was dead. And he felt like he might as well be too.

**No, no, no, no, no, no. This is NOT a suicide story. Don't even ask me that. Because I would NEVER have one of my characters commit suicide.**

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	6. Chapter 6

**Short, I know. Bite me. But it's . . . well, you'll just have to read on, now won't you!**

All Alek knew was that Chloe was dead. And he felt like he might as well be too.

But just as that horrid thought crossed his mind, he felt Chloe's chest expand. She took a racking breath. He felt her heart beat out a couple weak notes, and begin to race.

Alek flew up. Chloe's eyes cracked open uncertainly and he felt warmth seep back into her body. His arms cradled her head and she smiled, a great big genuine smile, like all the world was sunshine and rainbows. Not heartbreak and murderers.

"You're alive," Alek whispered in a voice like sandpaper. "_Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god. _You're alive!" he repeated, laughing through a new set of tears.

"I guess so," she muttered, but Alek didn't catch it. In an instant, he took her in a hug so tight, it crushed all the air out if her newly functional lungs.

But Chloe didn't care. Alek was there. Alek loved her. And she was alive once more.

"I... literally... can't... breath," Chloe gasped when she could take it no more.

Alek released her instantly, but wouldn't take his eyes off her. She had never looked so alive. Her eyes never so fiery, cheeks as flushed, mouth so effortlessly set in a grin. Alek buried his face in her hair.

"Oh, my _god_, Chloe," he wept, his voice thick and full of cracks. "I thought you were... _Dead_."

"I'm okay, Alek," Chloe said, laughing. "I'm _alive_."

"Wait... you're the_ Uniter_, aren't you? Nine lives and all?" cut in Brian, who stepped forward to inspect the newly alive girl. Chloe pulled away with a perplexed look on her face, like she was trying to remember a distant memory. But Alek bolted up and crashed towards Brian.

"_GET AWAY FROM HER_!" roared Alek, whose fist shot out from behind him and contacted with Brian's face.

"_Goddamn_!" Brian stumbled backwards, to the other side of the boat.

"_Really,_ Alek?" Chloe said, with just a lilt of humor in her voice. "Was that _really _necessary?"

"Dude, what the hell was that for?" Brian shouted at him, recovered from his shock.

"Just stay away from her," Alek growled.

Brian held up his hands in surrender. He backed up towards the other side of the boat and leaned against the opposite railing. "You got it."

Alek returned to Chloe and he slid onto the deck in a sitting position where he pulled her into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her as tight as he could without constricting airflow. With his head on her shoulder, Alek felt the entire world could end and he'd be perfectly happy as long as Chloe was still alive, and in his arms.

But Chloe wasn't quite done with Brian.

"Why'd you do it?" she called across to him.

"Do what?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.

"You're father, why did you... do whatever you did?" she asked, not quite sure if Mr. Rezza was unconscious or dead. "I thought you hated me."

Brian was silent for a while, wondering himself why he attacked his father. "I guess, just because you used me doesn't mean that you should die."

"But I didn't!" Chloe protested. "I had no idea—"

"Maybe not," Brian cut in softly, with just the slightest edge of bitterness. "But I can easily see where your loyalties lie."

Chloe started to protest, saying that just because she was on the other side of the boat didn't mean anything. But she stopped herself. It did mean something. It meant that Chloe and Brian were from two totally separate worlds, and there was in no stretch of imagination a way they could build themselves a bridge between the two. It meant that this was no Romeo and Juliet love story. Brian was made to kill Chloe, and if Chloe ever so much as kissed Brian, he would die. They physically couldn't be together, because every single force of nature, every ancient rulebook, every Mai, and every Order member was against it.

The fates had made Chloe's decision for her. There was no longer a "None of the Above" choice. They had chosen Alek.

But Chloe never answered because the boat began to lose speed.

"Oh, god," Brian whispered. "Scarface."

"What?" Alek cried. "He's still here? And you didn't _tell _me?"

Alek sprung to his feet and helped up Chloe.

"He's driving!" Brian said urgently. "What do we do?"

"_What_? You _idiot_!" Alek made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. Ignoring the comfortable distance he had once been at, Alek made his way towards Brian with Chloe at his side.

"Look, this is what we're going to have to do," Alek said, the wheels in his head turning dangerously fast "Brian, were going to have to knock you out. Tell the Order nothing, pretend someone came up behind you and you don't remember the rest. Chloe's body will be missing. You'll be innocent and no one will know where Chloe is."

Alek began to untie the ropes around Chloe's abdomen.

"Chloe, are you okay to swim?" Alek asked.

She gulped, her eyes falling on the water.

"If… if I have to," Chloe said, tossing the scratchy ropes aside and rubbing her bruised and bloodied forearms.

"It's alright, Chloe," Alek reassured. "Whatever happens, I've got you."

She nodded, but her doe like eyes wouldn't leave the speeding white water of the boat's wake.

"Brian," Alek said, addressing the boy who looked a just a little like he was about to pee his pants. "Just thought you should know I have absolutely no regrets in doing this."

And he clobbered him over the head with all the force he could muster. The heavy set boy fell with the sound of several 2-ton boulders.

Chloe stared at Brian in his broken state, wondering how her world could have fallen apart so quickly. Remembering Alek's words, she whispered bitterly to herself, "I wouldn't have had any regrets either."

"Come on, Chloe," Alek urged, taking her hand.

Her eyes still on Brian, Chloe muttered, "Goodbye, Brian."

And she never looked back.

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	7. Chapter 7

**Let me just tell you to go listen to Turning Tables by Adele. I've always loved Adele since my dance teacher taught us a gorgeous contemporary combination to Chasing Pavement oh, back in 2008. And I've been obsessed with her ever since. But I stumbled across Turning Tables this morning and thought, "Oh my gosh. This is fantastic. Adele just astounds me every single time." So I _had _to put it in here. It might not have exactly the right meaning for this story line, but it's still incredible and I think it fits the scene.**

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"Where have you—" Valentina stopped short, breath catching in her throat. She searched Chloe and Alek's bedraggled appearances, framed in her open door, for signs of harm. "What happened? _Full story. Now._Chloe, you look like the dead."

"Hey, she looked a lot more like the dead an hour—" but Alek was silenced by a timely punch on the arm by Jasmine. He rubbed the spot, protesting, "That's going to be a bruise."

The Pride leader ignored him and let Chloe sit on one of her spotless couches, even though she was sopping wet and covered in gritty sand. But Alek wouldn't leave her side, even though his jaunty, "CB" behavior had returned.

"Mom," Jasmine said, looking uncomfortable in the chair opposite of her mother. "Chloe..."

She stopped. She couldn't say it. She knew what her mom would say. She would blame it all on Jasmine, like she did everything else. She'd transform from concerned mother to ruthless pride leader in just a few short words.

Chloe could tell what was happening, so she shot in, "I'm fine now, but I lost a life."

_"What?"_Valentina shouted, standing up and towering over the two protectors. "How did this happen?"

"It was my fault," Chloe explained. "And I paid the price."

Valentina waved her hand at Chloe impatiently in the universal gesture for "continue on, quickly now."

"Cliff notes or the whole thing?"

Valentina declared, "The entire story. I want _details."_

"Well then you'd better sit."

She launched into the story. From where Brian asked her out, without telling her where she's be going, all the way to diving into the pitch black water and swimming to shore. Alek added in his information. He told them about seeing Scarface and swimming out to the boat. How he managed to climb aboard before it sped away. How Jasmine couldn't, and was left behind. But he added in how she intercepted them at the shore, and raced them over to Valentina's apartment.

But the leader was silent at the end of the explanation. She bowed her head in thought, with three teenagers very uncomfortable in the heavy silence.

Chloe listened to the gusty wind outside the apartment complex. The torrential downpour somehow calmed her, reminded her that the world continued on, heartbreak or not.

"Chloe, just go home," Valentina said in a voice thick with disappointment. "Take Alek with you, I need to talk to Jasmine."

"But—" Chloe protested, knowing that Jasmine would get the brunt of the blame for this entire night. Chloe scrutinized her but Jasmine just shook her head in defeat.

"Just get cleaned up and go home," Valentina ordered.

Chloe bowed her head and obeyed, wishing there was something—_anything_—she could do for Jasmine.

The rain was no longer comforting. It was just short of terrifying. It was a full out storm by that time. Winds raged, sheets of rain soaked through anything it met, lightning flashed across the sky. Anyone with sense was inside, snoozing away the thunderstorm. But no one said Alek was sensible, anyway.

Clad in black, he clung to the shingles for dear life, thinking that a particularly angry gust of wind could easily sweep him clean off the rooftop.

Chloe had had enough of thinking. She was tired of mulling the events over in her mind, the heartache fresh and biting. There was absolutely no way she would be sleeping at all that night. And Alek knew that. He just wished she had an ounce of compassion in her heart and would let him inside, at least for a moment.

So he crept over to her window, wary of the slick shingles and knocked, ever so faintly.

He saw her, curled up on her bedspread and lit by the screen of her laptop. She was watching some sort of movie. He knocked again, hoping her mom thought it was just some noise from the storm.

Chloe turned and was at the window in seconds, she pried it open hastily and Alek scrambled inside, sending water spraying in every direction.

"Hey, hey," Chloe joked. "Look what the wind blew in."

"Thanks?"

"Just go dry off," Chloe said, pointing to her bathroom. She found an over sized shirt from an old concert and a pair of her larger gym shorts and threw them into the bathroom.

"Thank you," Alek sang.

"Ssshhhh," Chloe chastised and sat back on her bed. She continued the watch the movie, the Hangover, in silence. It was near the beginning still.

Alek sat down with her when he was done changing.

"It's numbing," Chloe explained in a subdued whisper. "The movie. It helps me forget…things."

Alek contemplated her words for a while, finally saying, "You could use some of that. You've been through a lot."

Chloe curled up into Alek for an answer. She laid her head on his shoulder and he draped his arms around her.

They stayed like that throughout the entire movie, cracking small smiles at the antics that most people would burst out laughing at. But it was an improvement. The movie didn't involve Brian or death or The Order. It helped.

But it was finished. It was just a movie. And there was still no way that Chloe could sleep. It had only delayed the problem at hand.

Alek closed the laptop with a snap and leaned back on the pillows with Chloe. He stayed there for a while, the two of them curled up together in easy silence.

"It's hard, Alek," Chloe said softly. "Everything is so _hard_."

Alek listened to the way her voice took on a desperate note, like she was trapped in the world of Mai. Like the walls were closing in on her, and she couldn't escape. But maybe that was true. Maybe she really couldn't escape.

"Nobody chooses this, Chloe. It's easier for those raised in it. For Mai like us, it's always much harder," he said, hoping his words would bring some sort of help to her ailing heart.

"What was the hardest part for you?" Chloe asked, changing the subject slightly. "Besides your parents, what was the worst thing that happened to you when you became Mai?"

Alek thought for a moment. When he had become Mai, there wasn't a human he'd loved more than his parents, so giving up his friends was easy compared to his family. But when he lost them, it felt like his heart was being slowly ripped out of his chest. It was a constant, excruciating pain when they turned their backs on him.

"I had a dog," he began. "I don't know if you've ever had a dog, but Finn was... I don't know. Dogs are just always there for you. But when I started changing, he began to hate me. He attacked me once and my dad sent him away. Besides my parents, Finn was the hardest thing to give up."

Chloe was silent. A dog? She'd never had a dog and was never really the animal type. But she could tell this "Finn" was really important to Alek. Which was also strange. Whenever she imagined him as a small child, she pictured him as playful and mischievous, a troublemaker and witty little boy. Not a deep thinker. Not heartbroken.

"How old where you? When you… left?" Chloe whispered, just a little bit afraid of his answer.

Alek took a moment to consider this. He remembered being so short he could just barely see over the top of the airline desk to check his bags. He remembered in stark detail the woman behind the desk say in a troubled voice, "All by yourself? You sure?" He remembered her searching for a concerned parent, seeing him off. He remembered nodding, choking back tears, and handing her a wad of sweaty pounds his mother had slipped into his hands before he left her, completely alone in a world so terrifying through the eyes of a child.

"Twelve."

Chloe made a noise somewhere between a whimper and a shout of protest.

"Oh, Alek," she whispered breathlessly, staring at a completely new boy holding her. She imagine all the hurt he would've gone through, alone—utterly alone—and so young. She seemed to see him in a whole new light. She saw new grief in his shining blue eyes that flashed in the lightning from outside the window. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

Alek forced down his normal walls. He put down the normal air of confidence, the cool mien he had developed for defense. He let his forehead rest on Chloe's collar bone. He closed his eyes, letting the memories he perpetually blocked for so many years fall before his eyes. He saw his mother's stricken eyes. His father's disgusted face. He saw a door slam in his face. He saw his mother slip him a backpack filled with essentials and pound notes out the side door of his old home. He saw fluffy clouds from the plane to San Francisco. He saw a mirror, a reflection, of a blotchy faced boy, tear tracks and grime covering his soft skinned face. He saw a bus station. A bench he called a bed. He saw Valentina step off a Greyhound and how he knew, from the second he laid eyes on her that she was like him.

He didn't even cry.

But he stopped. He'd had enough of thinking. He stopped the thoughts, the tears. He wouldn't let Chloe see him cry.

"I just," Chloe said. "I just want to be normal again. Everything is always to serious, so life threatening. I so tired of trying to not die. It's exhausting."

Again Alek was silent. He let his thoughts shift to Chloe. He thought about how much pressure was on her. How she was never alone, always under her Protector's scrutiny, and how little of a comfort that was to her. How the assassins always seems to get through. How she'd already died twice. How she was an international target.

His eyes fell on her iPod. He snatched it from her bedside table, in one swift movement.

"What's your favorite song?" he blurted, with eyes lit up with the lighting flashing outside the window.

"My favorite—? What?" Chloe stammered, confusion knitting her eyebrows together.

"Just tell me," Alek urged.

"Um... Well there's _Turning Tables_by Adele. It's really pretty..." Chloe said.

"No, no. Something upbeat," Alek said.

"Er... I have _Tonight, Tonight_by Hot Chelle Rae?" Chloe said hesitantly, not quite sure what she was signing herself up for.

"Perfect," he said, selecting Tonight, Tonight and pressed an earbud into his ear.

He hopped off the bed and held out a hand. Chloe took it with an uncertain look sent in Alek's direction. He led her out to the corner of her room, where there was more floor space.

He slipped an earbud into Chloe's ear and she heard, "It's been a really, really messed up week."

"Ha," she laughed bitterly, "Ain't that the truth."

But Alek would have none of it. He took one of her hands and pulled, then the other, in an attempt to loosen her up. She resisted at first, but then let her body begin to twist with the beat. Chloe had no idea what Alek was trying to do. She honestly didn't feel like dancing, she wanted to curl up into a ball and just lay there, haunted by thoughts centered on a small, lost blond haired boy.

But Alek had other plans. He knew Chloe was bummed, and just a little bit heartbroken. He knew she wanted more than anything to be just a normal teenager. He knew he had to do something.

"Normal teenagers dance, Chloe," Alek whispered in her ear.

"Normal teenagers with broken hearts eat chocolate and watch romance movies."

But Alek gave her a hard look.

"Stop, _stop_. You know it's simply because you just _desperately_ want _all this_," he joked, gesturing to himself, the abs in particular.

"Oh, you wish," she countered, poking him in the abs.

"You betcha."

"La, la, la, it doesn't matter, la, la, la."

And soon, they were dancing. Making sure to keep her feet soft on the carpet, and stay close enough to Alek so her earbud didn't pop out, Chloe danced. Everything left her in that moment. All the weight of that night left her. Scarface, the Order, Brian, Mai responsibilities—they all vanished in the 3 minutes and 21 seconds of that song. Alek was smiling. Chloe was laughing. Everything was perfect.

But those 3 minutes and 21 seconds ended. And her ecstasy faded away just as the song did. Chloe felt the real world wash over her in waves of hurt. The weight returned to her shoulders and she thought she felt herself physically sag.

"Thanks, Alek really but—"

"No, stop," he said and pulled her close to him just as the piano intro for _Turning Tables_began.

"Alek, really I—" Chloe protested.

"Ssssshhh," Alek said softly. "How do you expect to feel like a normal teenager again if you keep bringing up the Mai stuff like that? Just . . . be sad only when you _have_to. Don't let it control you."

Chloe searched his eyes, wondering where all the words of wisdom stuff like that came from. Experience, probably. But Chloe thought he didn't seem like the "wise one" type. But with a past like his, it wasn't like he didn't have a well of experience to speak of.

But his hand was on the back of her head, urging her to relax. She laid her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around him, letting the warmth of Alek and Adele's gorgeous voice lull her into a some sort of trance.

And yet again, it was over. The song faded into silence but Alek still held her even when it was a long time over. He still rocked with an imaginary beat, holding Chloe close and wishing every night thunderstorms would force him into Chloe's room.

But it was Chloe who pulled back. And it was Chloe who threw her arms around Alek's neck. And all, completely Chloe who pressed her lips to Alek, with the force of someone utterly desperate.

He was caught off guard for a moment, with her quick movement. But he responded by pulling her closer yet. One of his arms found the small of her back, and the other the back of her head. His hand wove its way into her hair, and his lips moved with hers in perfect synchrony. Alek could only think, this was _exactly_how it was supposed to be.

And the only thought that crossed Chloe's mind was that the fates had made the absolute right decision.

**I cried. Well I ALMOST cried. See, I had this new acne medicine on and I'm not allowed to cry while I have it on. So I had to stop writing and listen to JLo, then go back and write more so I didn't start bawling. But it was a CLOSE CALL.**

** So, for all those Smart "Alek"s out there**

**(love you by the way, i'm with ya)**

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